Currency union

• A currency union helps its members strengthen their competitiveness in a global scale and eliminate the exchange rate risk.
• Transactions among member states can be processed faster and their costs decrease since fees to banks are lower.
• Prices are more transparent and so are easier to compare, which enables fair competition.
• The probability of a monetary crisis is lower. The more countries there are in the currency union, the more they are resistant to crisis.

• The member states lose their sovereignty in monetary policy decisions. There is usually an institution (such as a central bank) that takes care of the monetary policy making in the whole currency union.
• The risk of asymmetric "shocks" may occur. The criteria set by the currency union are never perfect, so a group of countries might be substantially worse off while the others are booming.
• Implementing a new currency causes high financial costs. Businesses and also single persons have to adapt to the new currency in their country, which includes costs for the businesses to prepare their management, employees, and they also need to inform their clients and process plenty of new data.
• Unlimited capital movement may cause moving most resources to the more productive regions at the expense of the less productive regions. The more productive regions tend to attract more capital in goods and services, which might avoid the less productive regions.[2][3]

Currency	Union	Users	Est.	Status	Population
CFA franc	Issued by the (French) Overseas Issuing Institute between 1945 and 1962 then by the Central Bank of West African States and the Bank of Central African States	Benin  Burkina Faso  Côte d'Ivoire  Guinea-Bissau  Mali  Niger  Senegal  Togo  Cameroon  Central African Republic  Chad  Republic of the Congo  Equatorial Guinea  Gabon	1945	Formal, common policy	151,978,440
CFP franc	Issued by the (French) Overseas Issuing Institute	French Polynesia  New Caledonia  Wallis and Futuna	1945	Formal, common policy	552,537
Eastern Caribbean dollar	Eastern Caribbean Currency Union of the OECS	Anguilla  Antigua and Barbuda  Dominica  Grenada  Montserrat  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1965	Formal, common policy de facto EMU for CSME members[6]	625,000
Euro	International status and usage of the euro	Eurozone:  Austria  Belgium  Cyprus  Estonia  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Malta  Netherlands  Portugal  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain and EU special territories:  French Southern and Antarctic Lands  Saint Barthélemy  Saint Pierre and Miquelon  Akrotiri and Dhekelia  Andorra  Kosovo  Monaco  Montenegro  San Marino   Vatican City	1999/2002	Formal, common policy and EMU for EU members Formal for Monaco and SBAs (those form a de facto EMU with the Eurozone) Formal for Andorra since 2011 Informal for Kosovo, Montenegro Formal for the rest	341,008,867
Hong Kong dollar		Hong Kong  Macau	1977	Informal; Decreto-Lei n.º 16/95/M prohibiting the refusal of the pataca by merchants and businesses.[7]	7,775,200
Singapore dollar Brunei dollar	Managed together by the Monetary Authority of Singapore	Brunei  Singapore	1967	Formal; currencies mutually exchangeable[8]	5,137,000
Australian dollar		Australia and external territories:  Ashmore and Cartier Islands  Australian Antarctic Territory  Christmas Island  Cocos (Keeling) Islands  Coral Sea Islands Territory  Heard Island and McDonald Islands  Norfolk Island  Kiribati  Nauru  Tuvalu	1966	Informal	24,557,000
Pound sterling	Sterling area (former)	United Kingdom and overseas territories:  British Antarctic Territory  British Indian Ocean Territory  Falkland Islands  Gibraltar  Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha  South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and Crown dependencies:  Bailiwick of Guernsey  Bailiwick of Jersey  Isle of Man	1939	Semi-formal. UK banknotes are legal tender in locations outside the UK. Local currencies are pegged to the GBP but not necessarily accepted in the UK: Guernsey pound, Manx pound, Jersey pound and Alderney pound, Falkland Islands pound, Gibraltar pound, Saint Helena pound	62,321,000
Indian rupee		India  Bhutan[9]    Nepal[10]	1974	Informal Nepal minor usage	1,352,000,000
New Zealand dollar		New Zealand and Realm:  Cook Islands  Niue  Pitcairn Islands	1967	Informal	4,411,000
Israeli new sheqel		Israel  Palestine	1927/1986	Informal	11,738,000
Jordanian dinar[11][12]		Jordan  Palestine (West Bank only)		Informal	8,922,000
Russian ruble		Russia  Abkhazia  South Ossetia	2008	Informal	142,177,000
South African rand	Multilateral Monetary Area	Lesotho  Namibia  South Africa  Eswatini	1974	Formal de facto customs and monetary union for the SACU member countries	52,924,669
Swiss franc		Liechtenstein   Switzerland	1920	Informal de facto economic and monetary union — 1924 creation of a customs union, then members of the European Free Trade Association (a common market), and now also part of the European Single Market.	8,547,015
Turkish lira		Turkey  Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus	1983	Informal	75,081,100
United States dollar		United States and insular areas:  American Samoa  Guam  United States Minor Outlying Islands  Northern Mariana Islands  Puerto Rico  United States Virgin Islands  Ecuador  El Salvador  Panama  Marshall Islands  Federated States of Micronesia  Palau  Timor-Leste  Turks and Caicos Islands  British Virgin Islands BES islands	1904 (Panama only)	Formal for insular areas and sovereign status with Compact of Free Association,[13] informal for other areas	339,300,000

Note: Every customs and monetary union and economic and monetary union also has a currency union.

 Zimbabwe is theoretically in a currency union with four blocs as the South African rand, Botswana pula, British pound and US dollar freely circulate, the US Dollar was until 2016 official tender.[14]

Additionally the autonomous and dependent territories, such as some of the EU member state special territories, are sometimes treated as separate customs territory from their mainland state or have varying arrangements of formal or de facto customs union, common market and currency union (or combinations thereof) with the mainland and in regards to third countries through the trade pacts signed by the mainland state.[15]

The European currency union is a part of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU). EMU was formed during the second half of the 20th century after historic agreements, such as Treaty of Paris (1951), Maastricht Treaty (1992). In 2002, the euro, a single European currency, was adopted by 12 member states. Currently, the so-called Eurozone has 19 member states. The other members of the European Union are required to adopt the euro as their currency (except for Denmark, which has been given the right to opt out), but there has not been a specific date set. The main independent institution responsible for stability of the euro is the European Central Bank (ECB). Together with 15 national banks it forms the European System of Central Banks. The Governing Board consists of the Executive Committee of the ECB and the governors of individual national banks, and determines the monetary policy, as well as short-term monetary objectives, key interest rates and the extent of monetary reserves.[16]

• between Bahrain and Abu Dhabi using the Bahraini dinar
• between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the Trucial States, using the Gulf rupee from 1959 until 1966
• between Aden,  South Arabia, Bahrain, Kenya, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, British Somaliland, the Trucial States, Uganda, Zanzibar and British India (later independent India) using the Indian rupee
• between Belgium and the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg (Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union) using the Belgian/Luxembourgish franc from 1921 to the Euro
• between British India and the Straits Settlements (1837–1867) using the Indian rupee
• between Czech Republic and Slovakia (briefly from January 1, 1993 to February 8, 1993) using the Czechoslovak koruna
• between Ethiopia and Eritrea using the Ethiopian birr
• between France, Monaco, and Andorra using the French franc
• between Austria-Hungary and Liechtenstein using the Austro-Hungarian krone
• between the Eastern Caribbean, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and British Guiana using the British West Indies dollar
• between the Eastern Caribbean, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and British Guiana using the Eastern Caribbean dollar
• between Italy, Vatican City, and San Marino using the Italian lira
• between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands using the Jamaican pound and later Jamaican dollar
• between Kenya, Uganda, and Zanzibar using the East African rupee
• between Kenya, Uganda, and Zanzibar (and later Tanganyika) using the East African florin
• between Kenya, Tanganyika and Zanzibar (later merged as Tanzania), Uganda, South Arabia, British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland using the East African shilling
• Latin Monetary Union (1865–1927), initially between France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland, and later involving Greece,[21] Romania,  Spain and other countries.
• between Liberia and the United States using the United States dollar
• between Mauritius and Seychelles using the Mauritian rupee
• between Nigeria, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Liberia using the British West African pound
• between Prussia and the North German states (1838–1857) using the North German thaler
• between Russia and the former Soviet republics (1991–1993) using the Soviet ruble
• between Qatar and all the emirates of the United Arab Emirates, except Abu Dhabi using the Qatari and Dubai riyal
• between Saudi Arabia and Qatar using the Saudi riyal
• between Western Samoa and New Zealand using the New Zealand pound
• Scandinavian Monetary Union (1870s until 1924), between Denmark, Norway and Sweden[21]
• between the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Australia using the Australian dollar
• between Australia, Papua, New Guinea, Nauru, the Solomon Islands, and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands using the Australian pound
• between Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt, and Hohenzollern using the South German guilder
• between Spain and Andorra using the Spanish peseta
• between Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada using the Trinidad and Tobago dollar
• between Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore (1953–1967) using the Malaya and British Borneo dollar
• between Cambodia, Laos, Guangzhouwan, Annam, Tonkin, and Cochinchina (later Vietnam) between 1885 and 1952 using the French Indochinese piastre
• between  South Africa, South West Africa, and Bechuanaland (later independent Botswana) using the South African rand
• between Egypt, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and Mandatory Palestine (until 1926) using the Egyptian pound
• between West Germany and East Germany between 1 July 1990 and 3 October 1990, as part of a temporary, so-called "Monetary, Economic and Social Union" prior to German reunification.
• between what ultimately became the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, between 1928 and 1979. The Irish Pound was held at exactly the same value as Sterling for this period, although it was not accepted for payments in the UK.

• proposed Pan-American monetary union – abandoned in the form proposed by Argentina
• proposed monetary union between the United Kingdom and Norway using the pound sterling during the late 1940s and early 1950s
• proposed gold-backed, pan-African monetary union put forward by Muammar Gaddafi prior to his death